Goodreads

capers

Our yard has SO MANY dandelions. We moved in almost a year ago now and we have been focusing more on the inside of the house than the outside, so when Spring rolled around and we finally were “surveying our land” we realized that we had work to do. A lot of work to do.

As we were looking at our yard my mind immediately went to Weed and Feed. Kill everything bad and we’ll have a nice green grass to mow and water all summer and we’ll win the “best yard” contest that our HOA does over the summer months, and… Then I realized how ridiculous I sounded. Trying to keep our lawn luscious and green over the summer is so stressful and a complete waste of water and money in my opinion. So after talking about it, my husband and I decided that we are going to get rid of our grass and do an edible front yard.

Now we are a little late in the game to get a full edible garden for this year but we are definitely going to start heading in that direction. In the meantime I was brainstorming what I COULD do with the edible weeds that I already had growing in abundance. Pinterest here I come!

A lot of the dandelions that we have in our yard as of right now are not actually in bloom yet. They are just long stalks with little green balls on top. Looking at them I remembered reading a recipe called Poor Man’s Capers with which you use… dandelion buds. Lucky me!

Fortunately I have a very enthusiastic three year old who is always more than willing to help forage with me. She spent ALL afternoon picking these dandelions, plucked all the “capers” off for me, and then fell asleep right away at bedtime. All of which was awesome. She really was amazing though, she was as proud of her hard work as I was.

After we had plucked all the soon-to-be-capers off I boiled some apple cider vinegar, water, and salt. I poured that into a sanitized jar, turned it upside down, let it sit for about 20 minutes, and VOILA! Poor Man’s Capers. It will take them a few weeks to actually pickle, so I’m just keeping it in the back of my fridge anxiously waiting to see how it turned out. I think the next thing I might try is Dandelion Jam. Let me know if you have any great recipes for dandelions! I’m always up for trying new things. Until next time… peace and dandelions.